By Carmela Jones, MNS
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -Alvin Toffler
Tony Wagner, author of "The Global Achievement Gap," is widely considered the father of the 21st Century Skills movement. He interviewed hundreds of Fortune 500 executives to gather data on what these business leaders were looking for in their potential hires, especially potential leaders.
He compiled a list of seven skills. The thesis in the book was that education, the way it existed in 2008, when the book was published, was not addressing the development of any of these seven skills. In other words, we were crippling students and leaving them ill-prepared for the future. The divide between what and how we taught and not training students in the seven survival skills was what he coined as the "global achievement gap."
The seven survival skills for the 21st century from his book were:
1. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving,
2. Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence,
3. Agility and Adaptability,
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism,
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication,
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information, and
7. Curiosity and Imagination.
When I became trained in Modeling Instruction, it hit me like a freight train that MI innately addressed all of these skills. I witnessed it firsthand in my classroom and it was all happening serendipitously. This week's entries will exemplify how some of the activities in Modeling developed specific 21st century survival skills in my students. More to come.
Reference:
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap. New York, NY: Basic Books.
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